Written by Emma Sanchez
Tenaris Flux was installed in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta Formation, one of the world’s largest shale gas reservoirs. Source: Tenaris
As growth in shale oil fields in states such as Texas and New Mexico slows, U.S. hydraulic fracturing companies are increasingly shipping idle equipment overseas to find new markets overseas.
Over the past two years, hundreds of pumps about the size of 18 wheels have been sent to Argentina by providers such as Halliburton, Calfrac Well Services and Tenaris SA, and to Australia by Liberty Energy and Halliburton, according to estimates from analysis firm Primary Vision. The shipment also includes sand towers, water tanks, industrial blenders, and miles of hoses used to inject liquids and sand into rock formations more than a mile underground.
All of this equipment represents nearly one-fifth of the hydraulic fracturing power installed in the Permian Basin through last year, with more likely to follow. Halliburton, the world’s largest provider of hydraulic fracturing services, said it believes there is an incentive to move equipment overseas as its international operations expand.
Sending vehicles with underutilized diesel engines overseas could help oilfield service companies recover after years of squeezed profits and customer pressure to cut costs. But there are downsides for oil and gas producers who rely on Halliburton and others to perform well-fracturing work. If companies start increasing production again, they will likely have fewer facilities in the U.S. and costs will tend to rise.
Private operators may be the first to feel the squeeze. These companies tend to ramp up drilling and hydraulic fracturing when oil and gas prices rise. If equipment becomes difficult to secure, the project could stall, said Matt Johnson, CEO of Primary Vision.
“They could hire an independent person and force them into a non-operational scenario. Then they could potentially throw themselves into an acquisition because they don’t have the availability or the means to hire a pressure pumper, or the equipment isn’t available, or they don’t want to sign a contract,” Johnson said.
Source: Primary Vision
Note: Data as of Friday, February 20, 2026.
Fracker has been one of the best-performing oil sector stocks this year. Liberty rose more than 50% and Halliburton rose 23%.
Heavy-duty frac pumps have been a ubiquitous symbol of the shale region for decades, a necessary piece of equipment used to pump water, sand and chemicals underground and to blast solid oil-bearing rock to spill crude oil.
Of the roughly 18 million horsepower of hydraulic fracturing capacity in the U.S., about 8 million horsepower is kept in reserve, representing idle inventory that can be restarted if market demand changes, Johnson said. A quarter of that inventory will be exported in the next one to two years, he added.
Countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have high demand for diesel fuel equipment, could deploy more advanced hydraulic fracturing machinery for the first time to increase natural gas production, said Dave Anderson, an analyst at Barclays Capital.
“We’ve been drilling in the shale for 20 years and know it inside and out, but I’ve never seen drilling in such a serious way anywhere else,” Anderson said in an interview. “What’s really happening now is an international non-traditional resource that we’ve never seen before.”
Indeed, Bobby Tudor, a Houston-based banker who helped finance the U.S. shale revolution, said in an interview Tuesday that it’s uncertain whether shale operations will be as needed outside Argentina as they are elsewhere.
“That’s not what we need in the Eastern Mediterranean, it’s not what we need in Vietnam, Malaysia or West Africa. It’s more of an offshore business,” Tudor said. “I think the U.S. onshore shale business will continue to be a swing supplier for some time.”
Oil pipes on a drilling rig in Añero, Argentina. Photographer: Ricardo Ceppi/Getty Images
Wood Mackenzie analyst Josh Dixon said the success of the U.S. shale revolution in the early 2000s, when hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling unlocked hard-to-reach energy reserves, led some companies to prioritize domestic resources over international exploration.
Dixon said more countries are now appreciating these unconventional approaches, and a wide range of participants, including independent operators and national oil companies, are defining a new era in global exploration.
Read more: Devon CEO interested in global oil exploration potential
“At this point, there’s nothing obvious that will distract people from the second phase of non-traditional exploration,” Dixon said. “The biggest question is whether these operations will be successful.”
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